The Royal Society has issued a new guide called A Short Guide to Climate Science, the latest in a long series of publications, beginning with Bob Ward's magnum opus, Facts and Fictions About Climate Change, that attempt to guide the public away from any awkward questions on the subject of global warming. It's a slim tome - just 8 pages long - but the Royal has managed to pack a great deal of public relations effort into it.
As one would expect, there is barely a caveat in sight, with the credibility of the models not mentioned at all and all kinds of tricks on display. For example, the "2000s were warmer than 1990s" line is dusted off and given an airing once again, as if this somehow contradicted the pause. The rise in Antarctic sea ice is tiptoed round in brilliant fashion, with an insinuation that scientists understand why their models are wrong in this area. I was also amused to see the dry areas becoming drier thing being aired again. I thought this had been thoroughly debunked?
So, as expected, it's a lot to do with PR and not a lot do with science. Perhaps unsurprisingly the authorship is a bit of a mystery.
The whole thing is accompanied by a slick video on YouTube.
I particularly enjoyed the sea-level graph starting at 1960 so that the viewers can't see that such rises have been seen for as long as we have records. I think we could call this technique "hide the incline".